be free, be happy, be peaceful

Monday, July 31, 2017

In the civilized cultured loving and caring society, people might take this word of 'LISTEN' to be "Someone or a voice needs to be heard or be listened, and people should being sympathetic in listening to someone else 'agony', or 'difficulty', or 'misery', or 'unhappiness', or 'painful sorrow', or 'hurts', or 'broken heart', or 'suffering', or 'grumbling', and etc."

It's normal for people to share each other's life experiences, ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions, either we want to tell our stories or we want ourselves to be listened by others, as well as we want to be a listener to listen to other people's stories, whether it's something 'good' or 'bad', 'happy' or 'unhappy'. People like to connect and stay connect with other people by chatting regularly or catching-up once in a while to show that they care. And it would be seen as abnormal or inhuman or cold, if one doesn't involve with such human social activities. We will feel lonely, isolated, abandoned, helpless, unworthy, unloved, not good enough, unhappy, depressed, disappointed, frustrated, or meaningless, if we think there's nobody there to listen to us, or nobody wants to share with us.

People would think that as human beings, people should be caring and sympathetic to be there for other people when people need someone to be there to listen to what is troubling them. Caring people like to ask other people whom they think they might be 'disturbed', or 'troubled', or 'hurt' by something, "Do you want to talk about what is troubling/disturbing/hurting you? I'm here to listen. Maybe I can help you." It's selfish, uncaring, unthinkable, uncompassionate, inhuman, or wrong, if we don't ask about other people's 'problems', or 'unhappiness', or 'painful sorrow', or 'suffering', and etc. Or it's 'bad' or 'unhealthy' if one observes silence of thoughts, actions and speech.

No doubt that by expressing, or talking, or grumbling, or bitching about our 'frustration', 'disappointment', 'dissatisfaction', 'troubles', 'problems', 'difficulties', 'misery', 'grief', 'hurts', 'painful sorrow', 'agony', or 'suffering', and etc, to other people may or may not give certain degrees of momentary relief to the 'suffering' or 'unhappy' or 'troubled' minds, but it won't help the minds to be free from what they think is their 'suffering' or 'unhappiness', even if the people who listen to them might try to give them some 'advice', or 'guidance', or 'care', or 'comfort' that they think might can relieve their 'pain' or 'solve' their problems.

Sometimes, talking or complaining about what we think is our 'problem' to some other people actually creates further complication to the existing 'problem' and could generate some other unnecessary 'problems' to ourselves and other people. The listener of other people's problems becomes a 'problem maker' or has a 'problem' in the end. We asked for advice from others, and someone was being very kind to listen to us and give us some advice and we took the advice, but when things didn't turn out to be the way that we expect it to be, we blamed other people for giving us their 'bad advice', or we blamed ourselves for trusting the wrong person and taking the 'bad advice'. This is due to most minds are impure, are not free from egoistic selfish desires, attachment, expectation and incorrect thinking.

In the path of yoga and meditation, we are learning to be a listener. It's not so much about listening to other people's 'problems' or 'unhappiness' to 'share' their 'problems' or 'pain', to say 'nice things' to comfort them, or to give them 'good advice' with the intention to help 'solving' their 'problems' (which is nothing wrong, but none can share, or solve, or take away another person's ignorance and suffering), but it's to learn how to open and quiet the mind to listen to the Dharma in here and now, and allow other people to also learn to listen to the Dharma, to be free from the root cause of all 'problems' and 'unhappiness'. There's no 'problems' that need to be solved at all.

People think that the person who is 'troubled' or 'hurt' needs a listener to listen to their 'pain', and this person will have less pain or no more pain, but in yoga, this person needs to be the listener, to know what is really going on in its own mind.

If one truly is 'disturbed', or 'troubled', or 'hurt' by something and they think that they need some help or guidance, instead of looking forward to talk and share about what they think is disturbing, or troubling, or hurting them, to be listened by some other people, to have someone there to share their disturbed feelings and thoughts, to get love and support from other people to feel better about themselves, one should learn how to be in solitude and silence, quiet the restless mind and try to LISTEN to the DHARMA.

If one TRULY LISTENS to the DHARMA that is here and now, with an open and quiet mind, one will realize or see the truth of the real cause of all their misery, trouble, problem, unhappiness, grief, painful sorrow, agony, or suffering. One doesn't need to talk or complain about anything or doesn't need anyone to be there to share or listen to one's 'problems' or 'suffering', as there is none.

Being yoga teachers teaching yoga and meditation to others, is about teaching and guiding them on how to see and listen to Dharma, or how to perform self-inquiry to attain self-realization to be free from the cause of suffering - ignorance, egoism and impurities. This is wisdom and compassion. Or else, talking and listening to each other among the teachers and the students can easily turn into a scene of 'corruption' and 'complication', especially if the minds are not yet free from ignorance, egoism and impurities.

For example: The teacher is being 'loving' and 'caring' to share and listen to the 'troubled', or 'heart broken' and 'vulnerable' student's 'problems' and disturbed 'feelings' and 'emotions', and this 'troubled' or 'heart broken' and 'vulnerable' student feels a lot of affection, love and care from the teacher, and unwittingly 'fall in love' with the teacher. Or, the student becomes sensitive and suspicious towards what the teacher says and does, as the student would feel 'disturbed', 'betrayed', or 'attacked', when the teacher talks about the similar issues in front of other students as part of the teachings in general, but the student might think that the teacher is talking about him or her personally, and is exposing his or her personal issues, feelings and emotions that he or she doesn't want to be exposed to any other people.

In yoga, the teachers don't really need to know what are the students' personal issues that they think they have. It doesn't mean that the teachers don't care about other people's suffering. It's because all issues derived from the same root of ignorance, egoism and impurities. The teachers just need to guide the students on how to free their minds from the root cause of all 'problems' and 'suffering' - ignorance, egoism and impurities, and allow the students to work their own way in their own pace and effort towards self-realization and liberation, without the need to 'know' or 'listen' to each individual's different types of 'issues' that are 'troubling', or 'disturbing', or 'hurting' them.

When we attend a silent meditation retreat, there's no talking or discussion with another person or teacher about what we think is our 'problems' or 'suffering', all we do is quieting the restless mind to allow the mind to see the truth of things as it is. It's about knowing one's mind and realizing the truth of suffering and rooting out the root cause of suffering. The past and the future doesn't exist. No matter all our experiences from the past to the present were/are good or not good, happy or unhappy, pleasant or painful, deserving or undeserving, the only reality is the present moment, and even this present moment is impermanent. It's about letting go egoism of all forms of attachment, identification, clinging, craving, aversion, desires, judgment and expectation, and thus be free from all sorts of impurities, and hence be free from suffering.

If people think they have 'issues' that involve other people whether in a relationship, or in a family, or in the workplace, or in the community, people should try to talk directly to the person/people involved to find the best solution. By talking or bitching or complaining behind people's back to a third party doesn't help, even though one might get some sympathy, agreement and supports from the third party who doesn't really know what is going on. People who are truly practicing yoga and meditation should stay away from such worldly activities.

We think and believe that "I have 'serious' problems in my life that are really difficult to deal with, that are more important than anything else. I deserve some sympathy and love and care and support from other people. If not, I'll feel depressed and hopeless and I think I want to 'hurt' myself to end my suffering." It's the ego that thinks 'my problems and suffering' are bigger and more important than anyone else problems and suffering. If we practice yoga and meditation, we allow the mind to be opened and we will see that what we think is our 'serious' life problems are truly nothing being compared to many other people's suffering in the world. We'll start to let go what was troubling us that we thought we couldn't let go before. And this is the beginning of compassion.

If people couldn't understand this teaching, or if people don't agree with this teaching, that's their freedom of thinking and belief.